Parting and a New Encounter

When the first glimmer of dawn pierced Gotham's heavy clouds and fell upon the spires of Wayne Manor, the underground laboratory where Joker had been buried had already become an undetectable steel tomb, deeply buried beneath the earth.

The Batcave was somewhat quiet.

Jason Todd had changed out of the Red Hood suit that symbolized revenge and rage. He now wore a brand-new lightweight tactical armor personally designed by Bruce. Dark red was its primary color, its lines sleek yet resilient, balancing protection and mobility. On its chest was a bright red, sharper new Bat emblem. It was no longer a talon lurking in the shadows, but a sharp sword ready to cut through the darkness.

"Have you really decided to leave?" Bruce asked as he watched Jason adjust the armor on his gauntlets. His voice was as steady as ever, yet there was a trace of barely perceptible concern in his deep eyes.

"Yeah." Jason nodded without stopping what he was doing. He raised his head and met Bruce's gaze. The eyes that had once been filled with anger and pain were now clear and resolute. "Joker is dead, and part of me died with him. Now, I need to find my place again."

He paused, a relieved smile tugging at his lips, carrying the particular unruliness of youth. "I don't want to be your Robin anymore, and I don't want to be the Red Hood who only knew revenge. I want... to see the world and find out, in my own way, what the words 'superhero' truly mean. Maybe I'll go to Star City and see that green guy. Or maybe I'll go to Metropolis and see what is so impressive about that flying alien."

Bruce listened quietly without interrupting him. He knew this was a path Jason had to take after rising from the ashes. Forcing him to stay would only push him back into the shadows.

"This vehicle was prepared for you." Bruce pointed to a modified motorcycle beside them, entirely black and built with muscular lines. It looked like a black panther poised to strike. The same bright red Bat emblem was branded on its hood. "Its performance is no worse than the Batmobile. It will be enough for you to tear through any city."

Jason's eyes lit up at the ridiculously cool motorcycle, and he whistled. "Thanks, old man."

He walked over, swung onto the motorcycle, and expertly started the engine. Its low, wild roar echoed through the enormous Batcave.

"Bruce." At the final moment before leaving, Jason turned back to look at him, his expression becoming more serious than ever. "Thank you. Not for helping me get revenge, but... thank you for not giving up on me."

With that, he did not hesitate any longer and twisted the throttle. The red taillight traced a dazzling arc through the dark tunnel before swiftly vanishing at its end.

The Batcave returned to its usual silence.

Bruce stood where he was for a long time, until the engine's roar had completely faded. He knew that this bird reborn from fire would eventually fly toward a sky of his own.

"Alfred," Bruce said into the communicator, "transfer one million dollars in 'allowance' to Master Jason's account every month. Also, have the League of Assassins' intelligence network monitor his movements at all times. Ensure his safety, but do not interfere with him."

"As you wish, sir," Alfred replied, with a hint of gratification in his voice.

After dealing with Jason's affairs, Bruce checked the time. It was already eight in the morning. He had an important board meeting to attend today, an initial discussion regarding the Gotham Rebirth Plan he had proposed.

Yes, this was Bruce Wayne's daily life. At night, he was the Dark Knight who made criminals tremble in fear, the shadow emperor who ruled the underworld. By day, he was Gotham City's most dazzling eligible billionaire, the domineering CEO at the helm of a trillion-dollar business empire.

He took off his suit and stepped into the shower, washing away the exhaustion and smoke of battle. More than ten minutes later, a billionaire clad in a top-tier custom-tailored suit, with every strand of hair perfectly groomed and an aura of restrained desire and raw masculinity, emerged from the Batcave's secret elevator and entered the magnificent underground garage of Wayne Manor.

Bruce swept his gaze over the limited-edition supercars in the garage, each worthy of being called a work of art, then casually chose the newest model: the only Lamborghini Veneno Roadster in the world. Its silver-gray body gleamed coldly under the lights, full of futuristic flair and aggression.

Accompanied by an engine roar like the bellow of a beast, the supercar worth tens of millions of dollars shot out of Wayne Manor like an arrow leaving its bow and headed for Wayne Tower in downtown Gotham City.

However, as the supercar drove along a relatively secluded urban expressway, something unexpected happened.

Several battered pickup trucks suddenly charged out from a side road, forming an encirclement and forcing the Lamborghini to stop in the middle of the road. Then more than a dozen thugs armed with baseball bats and pistols jumped out, surrounding it with greedy expressions.

"Hey! Kid! Get out of the car!" the blond thug at the front shouted arrogantly, aiming his gun at the driver's seat. "Leave the car and the money behind, and we might consider letting you suffer a little less!"

Bruce sat in the driver's seat and looked at the idiots outside who had no idea what they were getting into. He nearly laughed in anger.

Gotham's crime rate still isn't low enough. A chill flashed through his mind. Just as he was about to get out and stretch his limbs, showing these blind fools what the true dangers of the world were—

A red bolt of lightning suddenly flashed past in the distance!

Immediately afterward, the dozen or so thugs surrounding the supercar seemed to be struck by an invisible force at the same time. They screamed as they were hurled backward, their weapons instantly knocked from their hands and scattered across the ground. The entire process was too fast for the naked eye to follow!

Bruce's pupils narrowed slightly.

He saw a young man in a red bodysuit, with a lightning bolt emblem on his chest, standing amid the thugs groaning on the ground. He scratched his head awkwardly.

He looked young, slender, and carried the sunny, bashful air of a boy next door. He was none other than the television version of The Flash—Barry Allen, played by Grant Gustin.

Speed Force... It looks like he has been active for a while. Did he run too far during an experiment, or did he come to Gotham on purpose? Bruce's brain completed its analysis in an instant.

Barry clearly had not expected the person he saved to be driving such an outrageous supercar. He smiled awkwardly at the window and waved, seemingly intending to say, "No need to thank me," before turning to leave in a flash of lightning. To him, it had only been a small effort.

"Wait."

A steady, magnetic voice came from behind the lowered car window.

Barry stopped and turned back in confusion.

In the driver's seat sat a man so handsome it seemed unreal, with such noble bearing that it made others feel inferior. He was looking at Barry with deep eyes that seemed able to see through everything.

"Barry Allen." Bruce calmly called out his name.

Barry's smile instantly froze. It was replaced by shock and wariness as if he had seen a ghost. He instinctively assumed a fighting stance, every muscle in his body tensing.

"You... how do you know my name?!" he asked in horror. That name was his greatest secret! Apart from a few partners at Star City Laboratory, no outsider could possibly know it!

Bruce watched him act as if he were facing a formidable enemy. The corner of his mouth lifted into an amused, all-knowing smile.

"Because I am Bruce Wayne," he said evenly.

That answer was more impactful than simply saying, "I am Batman." It represented a completely different kind of power, one capable of making any superpowered person shudder: the power of information and capital. It told Barry: I know everything about you, while you know nothing about me.

Barry was completely stunned. Bruce Wayne? The richest man in the world? How did he know Barry's secret?

"Get in. We'll talk somewhere else." Bruce extended an invitation to the still-shocked Barry that left no room for refusal.

After several seconds of intense internal struggle, Barry finally pulled open the highly futuristic scissor door and sat in the passenger seat. He was simply too curious—curious how this legendary man had discovered his identity.

The Lamborghini started again, smoothly and swiftly merging into traffic as though nothing had happened.

The atmosphere inside the car was somewhat strange.

"So... Mr. Wayne," Barry broke the silence first. He still could not connect the playboy before him with the mysterious person who knew his secret. "How exactly did you...?"

"I heard that Bane, Gotham's big villain, was beheaded by Batman. That guy was a monster." Rather than answer Barry's question directly, Bruce abruptly changed the subject and brought up something else.

"Huh? Y-yes, I heard about that too." Barry could not quite keep up with Bruce's pace and answered instinctively. Of course he knew about it. The entire superhero community had been shaken. The Dark Knight, who had always upheld a no-killing rule, had suddenly changed completely and ended a criminal with thunderous methods. It left everyone confused and uneasy.

"Aren't you curious? What superpower does Batman have that lets him do all this?" Bruce asked with a faintly amused smile, turning his head toward Barry while skillfully driving the supercar.

"I... of course I'm curious!" Barry answered honestly. That was one of the reasons he had risked coming to Gotham. He wanted to see for himself what kind of person the legendary Dark Knight truly was.

Bruce gave a soft laugh, then spoke in a matter-of-fact tone so calm it reached the extreme, uttering words Barry would never forget for the rest of his life.

"Because I am Batman."

With that, he sharply turned the wheel. The Lamborghini veered onto an unremarkable side road and sped toward a secret entrance disguised as a waterfall.

Under Barry's shocked gaze, the supercar passed through the curtain of water and entered a deep tunnel filled with the feel of future technology. At its end was an incomparably vast underground cavern.

Countless bats hung upside down from the ceiling. A savage-looking Batmobile sat quietly on the central platform, while beside it rested a Batplane resembling some prehistoric beast. Vast streams of data scrolled across the enormous Batcomputer screen.

This was the Batcave.

Barry's brain completely crashed.

Bruce Wayne... Batman... money powers...

All that information exploded in his mind, leaving him unable to think for a moment.

Just then, the miniature communicator in Barry's ear transmitted the anxious calls of his partners.

"Barry! Barry! You went to Gotham, right? What's going on over there? Your heart rate is accelerating! Did you run into danger?!" It was Caitlin Snow's voice.

"I... I'm fine, Caitlin," Barry stammered. He watched Bruce get out of the driver's seat and walk step by step into the shadows, then lowered his voice excitedly. "You'll never guess who I met! I... I met Batman! And I rode in his car! He brought me to the Batcave!"

"What?! Barry, you're not joking, are you? At least make your lies believable!" Cisco Ramon's distinctly skeptical complaint came through the communicator. "Batman? How could you possibly..."

Before Cisco could finish, a deep, cold voice with a metallic texture, as if it had risen from beneath an abyss, suddenly traveled through Barry's communicator and reached the ears of everyone at Star City Laboratory with perfect clarity.

"He isn't lying."

"I am Bruce Wayne, and I am Batman."

Star City, S.T.A.R. Labs.

Cisco, Caitlin, and Professor Harrison Wells, who sat in a wheelchair—the Reverse-Flash—all had their expressions freeze completely at the same time.

Meanwhile, in the Batcave, Bruce had already walked to the Batcomputer. Without turning around, he merely said into the communication channel, "Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, and... Professor Harrison Wells. It is a pleasure to meet you."

As a transmigrator, he naturally knew Professor Wells's true identity. But he could not expose him yet. Keeping him around would serve a greater purpose.

Bruce's objective had been clear from the very beginning. He needed an ally, one fast enough to reverse time and travel through the multiverse.

And Barry Allen was the best possible candidate.